Some format and content musings, nothing to panic about

If I were going to bundle up and format my spell or magic item entires here, would normal-sized or digest-sized work better or would it matter?

If one were tinkering with a world setting and might format the incoherent madness results into something downloadable or purchaseable or both, would it be useful to go whole hog and include the/a 'core' ruleset or just the setting-related material?  Also, that normal/digest thing again.


None of the above is an actual concrete promise, but having less flailing over variables does tend to help me think ...

M: Magitech and Mecha

My go-to game is D&D of many stripes, and always has been; and yet when I look at the bookshelf behind me the fantasy games are outnumbered by the scifi games:

-Anima
- Pathfinder

- Mekton Zeta
- Alternity
- Jovian Chronicles
- Traveller

It's an interesting dichotomy to be sure, but I would be a rank liar if I said that nothing science-tech-mechanical made it into my D&D games. Readers of this blog know my fascination with magitech and magical clockworks; there's been at least one flying mecha-ship, in the form of a bird of prey, and the number of robots living statues and similar such non-fleshy beasties is by no means small.

This works for me, obviously -- the basic idea if still the same, after all, only the trappings and the exterior appearance has been adapted to fit. This is better than trying to shoehorn straight-up mecha into a D&D game in my opinion; that kind of jarring juxtaposition can wreak havoc unless handled very carefully and I freely admit to preferring being "sneaky" about the subject. It causes fewer moments of cognitive dissonance for my players, I get to be creative with descriptions, and it neatly dodges the whole "you're putting scifi in my D&D baaaaww" I've occasionally been forced to listen to. (see also: psionics.)

... Well, unless I ever write up that Voltron adaptation. Then the giant-robots-in-"fantasy"-world scenario just might make sense.

G: Gear -- what do you have?

No, this isn't a post on clockwork magics -- it's a shorter (if not sweeter) post about a few musings that trundled across my hindbrain this week.

What gear, if any, is assumed in your games? Taking D&D and its relations as the immediate example, do your PCs start with clothing (one outfit? more? what quality?) or do you make them purchase clothes out of their starting cash? Does a spellslinger have to buy their first spellbook -- potentially starting a game deeply in debt, monetarily or otherwise! -- or are they assumed to have that first tome "free", whether through the grace of a mentor or some other reason?

Does your campaign have "fast packs" or similar, to make kitting out new characters simpler? I'm rather fond of the idea myself, but tend to forget to make custom equipment kits (or lose my notes or get distracted) and default to a nice Dragon article I hunted up at one point ...

Conversely, are there items of gear that are Very Strongly Recommended a character have on their person if at all possible? For this purpose my rough and basic list is usually along the lines of: knife or dagger, 1-4 candles, flint or striker, day-worth of rations (minimum), chalk, string or twine, and some form or bit of cloth or rags. Add a basic scribe kit for a literate and wordy character, and a sturdy cloak or equivalent.

And then there's those games that abstract gear and resources in general; most White Wolf games come to mind. Do you play it all by ear, using the rough descriptions in the text, and handwave what a character might own -- or do you set a hard and fast line in the sand, trying to head off the "but why couldn't/wouldn't my PC own [whatever], they can afford it!" at the pass when a player conveniently~ claims to have some suddenly-beneficial possession?

Intersecting with all this, of course, is good ol' encumbrance. Just how much of all this gear is that PC trundling along with, anyway? Or does it even matter, as long as suspension of disbelief isn't completely shattered?

B: Beginnings -- what works best for your game?

Aah, the rustle of fresh unmarked character sheets. The clatter of dice as they hit the table (if one is using dice), the rulebooks scattered about, the grumbling as one loses every pencil in reach to curious cats within five minutes of starting. It's character-making time!

While one could post happily about what character generation methods are preferred and/or "optimal" -- when a game offers more than one generation method -- that's not what this entry is about. Rather two different topics are going to be brushed on, those being beginning "experience" and beginning background ... or lack thereof.

What level of experience -- be it in levels, character generation points allowed, or what have you -- is one of those crucial factors for a newly started game that is often overlooked. After all, the beginning is the beginning, right? Crank out those first-level mooks and lets start after those giant rats, folks! Go go go! And, speaking as someone who loves the low levels in D&D (that's what this blog is geared towards, after all ~), I think there's a great deal to be said about starting right from ground level as it were. There's a hell of a lot of character development that can be had so long as said character survives, of course.

But what about a group that wants to begin with established heroes/villains/adventurers/sheep? Is there something somehow "badwrong" about beginning characters at a higher level or, as in Shadowrun say, with a greater allotment of resources with which to make a fresh character -- can't that character have just as much depth and development as a baseline character?

Of course they can, says I. There's no magic line of death that says "You Must Be Below This XP Or You Will Never Be A Good Starting Character". However, for an experienced starting PC to be believable, at least in my experience, that boost in beginning competence must be backed up by a certain level of background detail explaining just where that experience came from. One does not just mysteriously start out in life as a crack sharpshooter/well-known mercenary/budding master arcanist/head of a small priory, after all; it all has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is likely to require at least a bit more detail than the stereotypical youngster fresh off the farm or out of lessons.

(well, unless you're playing the original Dark Sun. but starting at third level isn't the same thing when it's assumed that those levels are just a reflection of how only the strong manage to survive to adventuring age ;3)

This brings us up to subject number two, which is: how much detail is needed in a beginning character's background? Of course this is an even more subjective topic, and one could simply wave a hand and say "as much as the GM requires" or some other such bland commentary, but I personally would say that unless the game is planned to be a meat grinder at least a sketch of a background is a Good Thing. Name, description, age, I-came-from-here-and-did-this-and-this-is-why-I'm-killing-monsters-to-take-their-stuff -- that's a bare minimum. Some further goal, however sketchy, is appreciated; I like to see it when players give me character information and I try to encourage it, because it shows an interest in their characters as more than just stats on a page (and it gives me convenient hooks). If a character is more experienced, I want to see more details -- because I want to know where that experience came from.

It's not necessary to fill in every hole, of course; some of the most fun can come from developments in-game, even background developments ("The trauma of the goblin invasion made my mage suppress that his cousin was taken by them! Now he's guilt-ridden -- and wants to kill the goblins bad!").

At the other end of the spectrum are the beginnings that take up pages and pages of lovingly-crafted detail. These sorts of characters are sometimes mocked in gamer circles, but (as exasperating as it can be for some of us when we haven't asked for them) they have their own place and some gaming groups prefer that level of informational detail. At that, many freeform roleplay groups positively dote on pages-long beginning backgrounds and it is here that such information is especially useful, because it offers the chance to codify the abilities of the character usually offered by hard numbers in "traditional" rpgs.

So, all that being said -- where do you like your beginnings to begin?

A: Anime and D&D

A dreaded word in some gaming circles, to be sure; and one welcomed with open arms by others, my own included. We're all a great pile of anime fans and there's seldom a game that goes by that doesn't draw on an easter-egg or three buried into a scenario. (perhaps mercifully for all involved, said easter-eggs are seldom quite as blatant as this unless we've chosen to do so quite deliberately ...) If we ever managed to get a mecha -- or any kind of scifi -- game off the ground it would be even more prevalent, because we're like that.

Taken all together this is why there's two shelves of Exalted and one of Dream Pod 9-published books here in the hamster lair. Oh and Shadowrun, because Shadowrun can be very scifi anime-ish if you pick the right series as inspiration. (we like Gundam Wing, go figure.)

What I don't quite understand is the almost knee-jerk reaction against anime and manga influence that can sometimes be encountered, especially as that reaction has in my experience almost always been wrapped up in a complaint that 3.x D&D is "anime".

Um, what?

Ten years on and then some and that's one label I still cannot understand for the life of me. Because there's ... well frankly, even ignoring that there's no one "anime" genre, there's not really anything in 3.x that screams "anime" to me. If you want that, go look for Exalted as an example; there's umpteen different flavours to choose from in that kitchen sink of a game. But 3.x is pretty fairly "anime"-less, and not even the infamous big swords really changes that, big swords not being unknown otherwise, and all. The aesthetic at work reminded and reminds me more of Western video games and modern fantasy, but one's mileage may vary.

On the other hand there have been a few series which have their roots in roleplaying games and D&D in particular, the most well-known of which is surely the novel series-turned-manga-and-anime Record of Lodoss War -- which originally stemmed from play transcripts of a 1e AD&D group. One of these days I'll actually go digging around and see how many series I like have roots in roleplaying games; it would likely be an entertaining little experiment.

... and then there's that little itch at the back of my head that says I'd love to run a game even tangentially based on Bastard!!, which would kind of bring things full circle --

Inspiration from odd places

On rpg.net, a spambot popped up in a thread and (among other randomness, presumably), posted the following:

There are vampires in caves and forts all over Cyrodiil, and Daedra Hearts can be found in the realm of Oblivion.

A poster noted "That's quite poetic for a spambot." I think I'll take it one step further, and see what I can't whistle up as game inspiration -- with a few name changes and whatnot of course -- from such an interesting~ little spambot ...

Deadly Gardens

Brought upon by musings and the previous post --

I like plants that decide the PCs are dinner. I especially like plants that have bulbous, snapping jaws, like the greenfang and marrowlight and the upcoming post of "killer watermelons" -- nothing says "aiiie" like a plant sprouting (ha) a gaping maw. Plants are supposed to get eaten, not be the eaters!

Thorned plants can also be fun, whether found in rough sculptures, taking on animal forms, or even animating the dead. But they're a different kind of fun than killer chompers.

So, I want to hear about any deathplants out there in other people's games! What kind of greenery have you sicced on your players?

Egypt Gazetteer thoughts: on clerics.

Well, it looks like I'm actually devoting some brainpower to trying to make this work. Naturally, almost immediately I find myself having Deep Thoughts -- in this case about the four classes and what I plan to do with them.

The cleric is being, to put it kindly, a pain in the arse.

You see, the concept of a "cleric" or "priest" as it exists in the modern Western world (and in many other modern places for that matter) is of an individual who feels a higher calling, called to serve a higher power, preach the word, etc. etc, and this carries over into D&D with the benefits of getting nifty spells and the ability to smite (or control) the undead. Which is cool; I love me some crusaderish types with a warhammer or the pious healer types. It's all good.

But for the vast, vast majority of pharonic history in Egypt, it wasn't like that. Ye hells, there wasn't even an established priestly "social class" until the New Kingdom -- serving at a temple was something the middle class and the nobility did as a job, as a duty. They had seasonal shift-work at the temples, even. And when the concept of an "official" priesthood developed in the New Kingdom it was still more of a job than what we often define as "priest": one could be granted a priesthood as a sinecure, much like any other title, and men could pass on their positions to their sons. Certainly a lowly we'eb could work his way up the priestly ranks, but it was often more like looking for a promotion.

Priestly duties are also different from what the Western world is used to. The Egyptian priest maintains the rituals of the temple and performs the offerings to the god's statue in return for the benefices of the god in question to be given to the people -- a business transaction of sorts -- and because the rituals maintain the order of the universe so that the gods can do their thing. (The offerings to the deity were then distributed to the temple staff as part of their wages!) Very much an "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" sort of thing. This is why, when shrines and temples fell into disrepair such as during the Amarna interlude, the gods were said to not answer; humanity wasn't holding up its end of the bargain.

All of this isn't to say that there wasn't faith in Egypt -- there certainly was. In many ways, though, it was a very D&D-ish way of faith, with it's "I'll do x if you do y" (leaving aside how even the faithful will cheerfully threaten the gods when using magical incantations -- which the sun god gave to humanity as its perogative).

So, should there even be a "cleric class"? Or should it be subsumed into the other classes as something any given character may do as a profession? Much of the mechanical abilities assigned to the class fit just as well with an Egyptian "wizard" if not moreso. On the other hand, tweaking a few things to add a bit more flavour and keep the fourth class probably wouldn't break the metaphorical bank even if it might feel a little redundant to me as I write it.

Deep thoughts, blaergh ...

Scribblings from last night's workshift ...

Egypt Gazetteer

- (very!) brief overview

- class changes
-> alternate thief skills
-> redistribute spell lists
-> change/remove turning
-> "name levels"; patronage, titles

- currency and gear
-> weapons, armour
-> Egyptian versions of adventuring necessities
-> "basic kits"?

- spells
-> typical magic types
-> remove/alter most "blasters"
-> summonings, blessings, cursings

-> wax crocodile
-> parting water
-> teleport other

- critters
-> wolf of Upuaut
-> jackal of Anpu
-> divine ("golden") critters
-> akh
-> demon (generic)
-> demon, arrow of Sekhmet
-> sphinxes, Egyptian
-> constructs (ushabti, etc)
-> demon, tutelary (Aha/Bes)
-> Set-animal
-> "night serpent"
-> ba (dead human)
-> ba (manifestation of deity)
-> the Seven Hathors
-> solar cat
-> iaret

- changes to treasure
-> alter deben to "true" coinage?

- magic items
-> amuletic/glyphic magic

- deities

- cities
-> Khemenu (Hermopolis)
-> Waset (Thebes)
-> Mennefer (Memphis)
-> Iunu (Heliopolis)
-> Per-Bast (Bubastis)
-> Abdju (Abydos)

- ruins/necropoli
-> Great Place (King's Valley)
-> District of Eternity (Saqqara)
-> Nekhen
-> Abdju ...

- Kush and the Nubian kingdoms
-> Punt

- Libya and Syria-Palestine, Crete ...

- "the secrets of the deserts"
-> the West
-> predynastic sites
-> Eastern desert valleys
-> "demons and the dead"

- metaphysics & multiverse
-> sky
-> Duat (Field of Reeds)
-> darkened underworld
-> "God's Land"

Not Dead, Only Sleeping and other such commentary

I am indeed not dead, only sleeping, as it were.

For a few various reasons -- some having to do with the blogosphere, some to do with non-Interwebs events, and a great deal to do with other activities in my life at the moment -- I've not been feeling the itch to write for this neck of the woods. I haven't given up my Rules Cyclopedia by a long shot, but my attention is elsewhere.

Burnout chewed at my heels for the majority of the previous fall, so this does not really surprise me ... much as it doesn't surprise me that my extra immersion in the lands of giant robots is a definite distraction. (There is a pile of Mekton Zeta and various Dream Pod 9 books sitting next to me as I type this, along with several volumes of Gundam mechanical guides and photonovels ...)

I churned out posts for the better part of a year, and I daresay I'll be back again before long. But I need other things at the moment, and there are some other things I don't need much so much of.


Cheers, all ~ I shall be back ;3

Historical settings: What elements?

When in the market for a historical setting -- for any rpg, really, though since I'm writing for Classic D&D on this blog one can take that as a starting-point -- what do you look for?

More to the point, what sort of information and details do you expect to find, and want to find, in a historical setting? New critters, magic, class tweaks or descriptions of how classes fit in? An overview of the history and culture in question? Location descriptions? New fiddly systems ...?

How much historical accuracy is too much, or too little? Should the "fantastic" elements fit the culture, the general theme, or does it matter?

I'd love to hear your opinions ~!

Red Box thoughts

You know you've been trundling along with something too long when you entertain thoughts of how you would like to rewrite it, if you could.

Recently I've been mulling over the idea of what I would put in a "Red Box" of levels 1-3 D&D. What critters, what sort of items; would I add or remove classes, or make alterations to the classes in the Mentzer box (my preferred Red Box) ... Could I condense an itty bitty gazetteer of sorts, give a starting-point for an adventure or two?

This, predictably, soon attracted the question of "Could I make this self-contained?". Hyper-low-level gaming is hardly everyone's cup of tea, but we've gotten a goodly fair bit of mileage from it. A self-contained Red Box may require other adjustments in and of itself; something else to ponder over.


If nothing else, it's turning into an entertaining mental exercise. I may post further ramblings on the subject.

Egypt Gazetteer?

Yes, yes; I know I have one-and-a-half projects in the pipe already. (And to be honest, I wonder if I haven't overreached myself there ...)

But the idea has settled in my head that writing a little gazetteer for, say, Labyrinth Lord set in Bronze Age Egypt could be damned fun. It's certainly a topic I'm familiar with! -- which would be a great help in staying motivated.

Descriptions of changes to classes, some new weapons and gear; a goodly handful of settlement descriptions with a bit of tweaking for gameplay, and a flock of gods to go with; a smattering of spells, a clutch of critters ... Those grimoire ideas would fit in there like a glove ...

I think I could do it. It might even get me back in my groove.

Has anyone else released anything for Egypt?

Grimoires

I've been tinkering with the notion of "grimoires" -- spellbooks which contain only a single spell or possibly a few closely-related spells, which may only be cast by reading directly from the grimoire's pages. The upside to this necessity would be that the spell(s) of the grimoire are distinctly more powerful and / or esoteric compared to the run of the mill variety.

So far, my major points of consideration are:

- The spell(s) are more powerful than a typical spell of its "level". Not necessarily radically so, depending on the spell in question; some may simply have unusual effects.

- The spellcaster expends a memorized spell of the same nominal level (or a number of spells that add up to the level) in order to cast from the grimoire.

- The casting takes time, as the grimoire must be leafed through, read from, etc. It's not enough to just have the book in one's possession, it must be made use of. (Just how long I haven't decided.)

- If a spellcaster somehow came into possession of a grimoire with spells of a level higher than they could normally cast, they can make the attempt if they have enough spells to spend fuelling it. Backlash of some kind would likely be involved.

- A spell from a grimoire cannot simply be learned. It can be used as a source of spell research for an equivalent (and higher level) "normal" spell, but a grimoire spell is unique and cannot be memorized straight from the grimoire's pages.

... So, these would be the cast-from-the-book ritual type spells, with unique appearances and (theoretically, at least) effects. Maybe non-spellcasters could have a way to use the things.


Maybe, for extra oddity, the things could also have alignment Ego and Intelligence scores much like certain swords --

A serious writing project? Seriously?

In the last few days I've found myself pondering working on a document packed full of how I intend to handle elemental magic (or, at least elemental spells), the elemental planes themselves, and all that fun stuff. I dare say I could fill a decent handful of pages with:

- planar description for all six elements
- an explanation of how Courts work and few examples for each plane
- elemental cysts and what one can do with those nifty shinies, including the hybrid cysts
- crossovers between the elemental planes and the mortal world
- calling elementals and elemental spirits
- and of course a goodly measure of critters, magical items and spells

I could even work up a Labyrinth Lord version. With luck, this notion will take root over the next few weeks and something might come of it -- I need to encourage myself more! (Or at least stop getting distracted by everything else that comes along.)

But here's the big kicker of a question, because I have to admit the temptation is dangling: would it be worthwhile to actually make this project -- if it flies -- into something I could put on Lulu?
Better question: how could I manage that, with the artistic and layout skills of a dead wombat? *grins*

Well, better to see what I can write first I suppose. That week in exilevacation in the first week of June might come in handy, too ...

Things being pondered ...

- Converting at least some of the content of Al-Qadim over to BEMCI. Classes and magic, at least, should be doable ... the sha'ir would require some thought, though ...

- Maybe some more FF critters. Maybe some critters and whatnot from another game (Luminous Arc would be interesting magic-wise).

- Flesh out and possibly tweak my psionic class.

- Why am I tempted to write stats for critters from Pern? *facepalms*

Needs more extinct critters.

Leafing my way through the critter section of the Rules Cyclopedia (the Red Box is not quite so useful for this), I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed by the selection of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, extinct mammals and other ancient critters.

Same old same old: sabretoothed tigers, cave bears ... triceratops, tyrannosaurs ... Why not some variety? How about Elasmotherium, or Andewsarchus, or Hatzegopteryx? Or trilobites? Or Microraptor -- it's a midget Velociraptor with wings on arms and legs like a biplane, how could it not be cool?

There's not enough variety, and frankly the ones they do have there are in desperate need for some overhauling. Especially the dinosaurs -- and seeing as such lovely books as Gregory Paul's Predatory Dinosaurs of the World were published in the second half of the 80s ... well.

I just may have to revamp and add to the extinct critter lists.

WotC, PDFs, etc etc. GIFs at 11 --

I try really really hard to keep editorials off the blog. My blog is here for my randomly-running stream of critters, magical widgets and other oddities, and -- though I've slipped once or twice -- I like to keep it that way. This topic, though ... this one I think I'll spill a bit of pixels on.

WotC has yanked all of their PDF catalogue from legal download. (Of course, anyone in gaming who happens to have been online in the last 24 hours likely knows that.) Much verbage -- and other worthy reactions -- have already been expressed on this, so I won't belabour the details. But what was the point of yanking the entire catalogue? WotC keeps bleating about piracy and the loss of sales of their hardcopy product because of it, but how or why would that affect the sale of OOP material from which WotC could only expect profit from legal sales, and certainly no further loss of income?

I have a few theories.

(no, not bunnies.)

The first that comes to mind is that the PDF market is one of two sources for prospective players to pick up older editions of (A)D&D, the other being the secondhand book market. By yanking the PDFs, WotC is trying to herd gamers into the waiting arms of 4e.

Unfortunately for this plan, if plan it is, all WotC has succeeded with here is 1) the further proliferation of pirate OOP material and 2) plenty of breathing room for the retro-clone industry.

The second is even more straightforward, in its way. I've seen with my own eyes WotC reprints of Dark Sun's "Prism Pentad" novels in my FLGS. I wouldn't put it past WotC to be pre-emptively raking back all access to earlier editions of their settings in order to be certain that their 4e iterations -- should there be any -- are all that are available.

These two notions go nicely hand-in-glove, all things being equal --

Cheers for foliage!

Due to the notable majority when I asked for input on a theme week, starting Sunday morning I'll be making a week of plant posts. This will include mosses, fungi and what-have-you, and could be anything from critters to "ordinary" plants (yeah, right) or botanical items. Or ... other things.

I'm delaying for a few days because I've had a spate of thought about my least elemental spirits and want to finish up the main four before sticking my head into a metaphorical jungle *grins*

Contemplating some themes.

Last month, I had a "theme week" of sorts and posted seven days of dragons. It was entertaining to work with a common thread and see what I came up with, and I must admit I'm rather tempted to try it again. The question is, of course -- what to use as a theme?

A few ideas I've had drift through my hindbrain are

- demihumans / humanoids
- elementals (... I should probably finish up the lesser spirits in any case)
- undead and related critters
- plants (whether critters or otherwise)
- a specific form of magical item
- a themed set of spells (astral, sanguine, geomantic, elemental ...)
- a theme of posts from my 'named' entries, such as Jie Chue or Salan Kir'ith

Requests? Suggestions? Throwing of dead carp? ;3